A Survey For The Servant

Summary: In order to be an effective servant for Christ, we must make sure a number of areas of our testimony and life are in check.

Chapter 10: Jesus, The Good Shepherd.

Week Three: A Survey for the Servant. (10:31-42)

I. Introduction.

--Have you ever been in a Mall and gotten cornered by one of those people with a clipboard in their hand, wanting to take a ridiculous survey? I try to avoid those folks as much as possible, but inevitably you will run into one of them. Let’s pretend for a moment that we are going to the Mall, and an angel is stopping us to take a survey for God. A survey to see how faithful you have been on Earth. How would you do? Well, let’s find out, why don’t we?

II. Questions that every servant must be asked:

A. Are you Scripturally above reproach in all that you say and do? (v. 31-36)

--Jesus asks, in essence, “I have done nothing wrong, so why are you seeking to kill me? For something good I’ve done?” The Jews answer: “We’re not stoning you for something you did, but for what you said. It was more important to them that Jesus said He was God than that He did important works. In this, ironically, they were right. But, they didn’t believe His claim, and that is every man’s undoing. Its not what you think about what Jesus did that fundamentally matters, but who He was. The Jews believed in the miracles that they did and they probably believed he was an intelligent, good man. They didn’t dispute that here. They were angered by Jesus’ claims to be God.

--Jesus, our example, is able to ask:

1. What have I done that is not right that has offended you?

2. What have I said that is not Biblical?

a. This is a very interesting verse. In order to get the full scope of what Jesus is saying, however, we need to look at the place from which He is quoting, and that is Psalms 82:6. Let’s turn there.

b. In the Psalms 82:6 passage, the word gods here is a form of the title of God, El-ohim. However, God is not implying that these people are actually gods, divine beings to be worshipped, but the word here can also mean “magistrates,” or “judges.” It is this reckoning that we are to take.

1). Have you ever been in a courtroom? The judge, or magistrate is there to impart justice. He is the one that has been given the authority of God to execute judgment upon other human beings.

2). In a similar sense, we are judges to some extent…not meaning that we are to judge one another, (James 2), but that we are representatives of El-ohim. “Little gods” in the same way as Christians are “little Christs.”

3). Because we have given this authority, to represent Christ, we are to be pure, to follow after the Law. If we don’t, we become hypocrites. (Similar to a police officer who tries to live “above the law.”)